Marika Tachibana
is one of the main characters of the Nisekoi series, she is introduced as Raku Ichijō's fiancé. Background Marika was born to Gen and Chika Tachibana. Born with an underlying illness that has been passed down from her mother, Marika spent most of her childhood bedridden and in solitude. At one point, Marika resided alongside her father at Tenku plateau due to the clean environment. There she met the young Raku, whom Marika affectionately calls "Rakkun", whereas the latter recognise Marika by the name "Mari". In their leisure, Raku would voluntarily go to where Marika is staying and bring with him objects he gathered from the forest such as twigs and bugs. Raku also gifted Marika her trademark calendula hairpin. Marika finds great pleasure in her times with Raku and eventually fell in love with him, asking his father to have them marry in the future. To commemorate this promise, Raku and Marika took a photo together with Raku's father. Personality Marika is predominantly attracted to Raku and is bold enough to claim herself to be the most suitable girlfriend he can ever have. In fact, among the girls who are attracted to Raku, Marika is the most vocal and upfront as she does not hold second thoughts in her attempts to claim Raku for herself. She does her best to do anything that might appeal to Raku, noting her sheer dedication for him, even as a child, into shaping herself to what she conceives an ideal girl for Raku, putting aside the time that would have been spent for her treatment. All this, coupled with the frail physique she inherited and was born with, Marika always tries to keep her composure in front of her friends and only shows her frailty to her aide - Honda - or whenever nobody is around. Yet this would not yield her in doing something as bodacious such as sculpting Raku a huge chocolate statue in his likeness. However, in the face of her mother, Marika is shown to feel desperate and hopeless, obeying her mother's words to the letter even if it meant hurting the ones she holds dear. Despite this, however, Marika is usually shown in high-spirits, optimistic yet somewhat prideful. She is not afraid of making bold statements to herself and towards others and is rarely shown to lose composure. If so, Marika turns violent, reverts to her vulgar speaking habits and capable enough to throw off Yakuza, Bee Hive and police force members. Back when she was a middle-schooler, Marika is also revealed to be quite manipulative and cunning that she single-handedly was able to beat the ring-leader of the ones who had bullied her and eventually controlling an entire school from the shadows. Though not apparent, Marika genuinely cares for her friends and is usually delighted by their company. She is also shown to be quite perceptive by the agendas that occur between her friends, such as the fake relationship Raku and Chitoge share, as is her being secretive in this regard as well as other matters. Overall, Marika remained a loyal and supportive friend, adamant to her emotions, and a very competitive love rival vying for Raku's affection. = Relationships = Main Article: Relationships of Marika Tachibana Appearance Marika has fair skin and long orange hair which she neatly divides into two locks. Marika also sports a calendula hairpin she received from Raku in their childhood. As a child, Marika kept her hair very short, but once she met Raku she let her hair grow out when he told her he liked girls with long hair. She also changed the way she spoke to impress Raku for all the changes she did for him but whenever she becomes flustered or embarrassed, Marika returns to her bad speaking habits and becomes timid and soft-spoken, a far cry from her usual behaviour. Marika wears a different uniform compared to everyone else's at the school due to her transferring. She wears a sailor uniform with a long, striped black skirt that reaches around her knees, matched with a white-grey shirt and a yellow cravat. Abilities * Marika is known to have all qualities that would have made her the 'ideal wife' for Raku. But her ability to carry them out are hampered sometimes due to recurrent attacks of anaemia * Singing: '''Marika is known to be a great singer as she took rigorous classes to change her voice for appeasing Raku's wish. However, she is a poor teacher of the same, as she continuously gave up when she was asked to teach Yui. * '''Cooking: Marika is shown to be good in cooking, especially if it's for Raku. She had made him a gigantic chocolate statue of himself and even had a cooking contest with Chitoge. Although Chitoge won the last round, Raku thought Marika's cooking was very delicious. Story First Year Arc She transfer to Raku's school so that she can be with him Second Year Arc Third Year Arc Raku rejects Marika. After that, she cuts her hair and her disease completely cured. She now has a hard time looking for a man who is equivalent to Raku. Trivia *Marika speaks with a Hakata dialect when she's flustered, embarrassed or angry, she tried to stop this type of speaking because it wasn't 'girl-like'. *Marika had once claimed to have a distaste towards girls who have long hair in general as this reflects to Raku's childhood interest in women despite having long hair herself. *She has a pet parrot named, "Raku-sama". *Marika has kissed Raku on his cheeks twice. http://i.imgur.com/eIGPGs0.png http://i.imgur.com/ix78Bgz.png *Marika later admits to Raku that she isn't the "promised girl", but she says she won't give up if he ends his relationship with the girl he chooses. *Marika only appears once fully in the first opening of Nisekoi, since the first 13 episodes she just appeared as a silhouette and after the 14th episode the opening changes. *Marika doesn't seem to care about her grades unless it has to do something with Raku. *In early promotional trailers for the Nisekoi Anime, Marika had brown hair instead of her now, orange hair. *Iin the manga, it is revealed that she is afraid of animals since she had a pet hamster that ate her own babies. *Marika initially had forgotten about the promise made by Raku ten years ago but on perusal of the picture book found in Kosaki's home, she is reminded of the events. However, since she realises that she wasn't the promise girl, she did not tell the others feeling her chances to win over Raku might die. But Shuu realises she is keeping something to herself and tries to confront her but she was reluctant to accept. Quotes References Category:Female characters Category:Characters Category:Nisekoi